All signs are pointing to 10/17/2012 release date for 1.11 unless we just find some massive exploits that they cannot fix. The mess that is warrior right now will need mass testing and feedback. Numbers for every class for baseline min/max damage are all over the place.

How is that any different than WoW? WoW basically has 3 classes. Damage, Healer, and Tank and you just pick the class that falls into one of those 3 you wanna play. Also WoW has way, way more reps to grind out. The currencies are easy to keep track of in Rift as well. One is for tradeskill plaques, one for Rift invasion rewards, one for dungeon plaques (Justice Points), and one for raid plaques (valor points). Also how is planar attunement hard? If you play a Mage gee I dunno maybe you wanna choose the one that gives bonuses to int, staff, and wands.

Rift also has dedicated support souls (bard, Archon, warlord, etc) for each of the classes (we aren't sure about cleric yet) and in many raid/pve encounters, hybrids of each of DPS/Healing/Tanking are viable. (healing priest with MDPS capabilities warden/shaman for example has some nice ST damage). PA may not be hard, but the depth of the customization is daunting, and additionally, while one moment you might carry a totem, the next you'd be carrying staff, and while your main calling might need Int, your OS may need Wisdom, further complicating things and putting you in a situation where you need to spend your points wisely for maximum benefit.

{I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. }

In Eve-Online, you select between 4 races, each with 3 bloodlines, each bloodline having 3 "Ancestries" (total of 36 combos), each combination of which modifies the starting point of your core stats, effectively setting the max value of these stats for the character permanently (since training and implants increase these base values by a fixed maximum).

that system was abandoned in 2009... now everybody starts with the same stats and almost the same skills (racial gunnery and frigate do obviously differ, but total starting SP is ~50k so it doesn't really matter).
Stat weights can also be reassigned once per year and a new character starts out with 2 of such "remaps". Learning skills have also been removed giving everyone +9 in all base stats instead.

Bloodlines are purely cosmetic now and Race hardly matters (Amarr rookie ship has a bit less cargo space than the others which makes it unsuitable as a cyno ship).

Question, how fast is leveling in Rift? I was never a big fan of leveling, I just want to do endgame content / raiding.

Also, how hard are the raids? Are the new raids cleared in 2 weeks like WoW atm or do guilds progress through them slower, like it was in Vanilla WoW?

"Loss of blood... My only weakness!"
~ Warlord Khan, Magicka

Anyway, if you don't already see where I'm going with this, allow me to spell it out: the only meaningful MMORPG "endgame" -- i.e., something novel to do after the progression process is over -- is that of the sandbox.

A very popular method used is by doing Instant Adventures which you get to do from level 10 onwards, you get to join a random raid group with anywhere from just you to a full raid of 20 people running around doing quests and objectives on the fly, instant XP pouring in

how hard are the raids? Are the new raids cleared in 2 weeks like WoW

Very few Guilds in Rift are able to walk into a new 20-man raid and clear it in 2 weeks, Rift only has one level of difficulty, there's no nab mode, normal mode and heroic mode

Also 10-man and 20-man raids are totally seperate and different instances, the newest 20-man Infernal Dawn has probably been cleared by maybe 20 Guilds? possibly more but the dragon Laethys is still proving to be a tough cookie to crack for a lot of Guilds

that system was abandoned in 2009... now everybody starts with the same stats and almost the same skills (racial gunnery and frigate do obviously differ, but total starting SP is ~50k so it doesn't really matter).
Stat weights can also be reassigned once per year and a new character starts out with 2 of such "remaps". Learning skills have also been removed giving everyone +9 in all base stats instead.

Bloodlines are purely cosmetic now and Race hardly matters (Amarr rookie ship has a bit less cargo space than the others which makes it unsuitable as a cyno ship).

I've been looking at some classes and trying to figure out what I would play.

Specifically I like Melee-Magic Wielder hybrids. The quintessential Warrior-Mage or Battle-Mage scratches right where I itch. I saw there was already a "Battlemage" build based on a Cleric. I also have a Nightblade/Rift Stalker/Assassin on Rift Lite that I made and enjoyed. Lastly I saw that the new Harbinger Soul would basically be a Melee-Mage.

Aesthetically, I hate Robes and Staves and Wands. I like having both Ranged and Melee options. Based on this, and the above, what might the optimal Soul set up for me be? Also would this set up actually be viable in endgame play?

Damn...I was kinda hoping to be talked out of subbing by starting this thread. Now Rift just sounds too good to be true. What's the catch? If difficulty in gameplay and/or deep meaningful character creation/upgrade paths is supposed to be a turn off, its not. =)

Fact is, I play Rift w/o raids and 5-mans. I do IAs and zone invasions, and get planar gear as I level up. No guild, no pre-planned groups,etc. Doesn't mean you can't raid or do 5-mans if you feel like doing that, or changing that. I don't raid in Rift because I haven't found anything that's more compelling or 'different' from what I'm already doing in that area, and I don't want to 'double up' on raiding, either. I play Rift for its unique things, not the stuff everyone else does, too. (Edit) Also, mentoring is the best thing *ever* for the way I play Rift.

The above is not to say that Rift's raiding is bad. It's actually quite good, on difficulty, etc. It's just not, imo, unique or ground-breaking above and beyond what others are doing, so it doesn't give me a reason to switch to Rift's raids and/or make a go of it w/o my 7-year guild of friends; or to put it another way, I don't see any reason to play WoW in Rift, because raiding and 5-mans in the two games are very similar: raid and 5-man for currency to get gear as well as the drops. (Let's please not make an extended flame-war from this paragraph. I tried to be clear that I'm not bashing anyone here, and I clearly labeled it opinion. YMMV.)

I've been looking at some classes and trying to figure out what I would play.

Specifically I like Melee-Magic Wielder hybrids. The quintessential Warrior-Mage or Battle-Mage scratches right where I itch. I saw there was already a "Battlemage" build based on a Cleric. I also have a Nightblade/Rift Stalker/Assassin on Rift Lite that I made and enjoyed. Lastly I saw that the new Harbinger Soul would basically be a Melee-Mage.

Aesthetically, I hate Robes and Staves and Wands. I like having both Ranged and Melee options. Based on this, and the above, what might the optimal Soul set up for me be? Also would this set up actually be viable in endgame play?

Lots of interesting choices:

I just want to say that from an aesthetic point of view, your mage would be able to wear plate now in the wardorbe slot, so you can have any look you want. Cleric is a good choice with the new glacial priest purpose (the spec has healing/dps magic from the warden soul and Melee dps from the shaman soul). the Tempest is also quite convincing if you want to play Thor while Dual wielding.

The Harbringer has so many possiblities (pet, no pet, heals, no heals, fire mage, etc.) and the ability to change your staff into a sword, axe or scythe means that the aesthetic component is taken care of.

I am still working out some of the combinations on Live, trying to see if there are other viable cleric MDPS/RDPS combos, (Inq and Druid for example).

It has been my reading so far from the changes that a lot of Builds are viable - this even includes feedback we've seen on Beta Soul combos like the Harbringer and Pyromancer we have seen in the reveal.

{I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. }